Asia and Oceania Thyroid Association

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Third Bulletin issued by AOTA, ETA, LATS, ATA and LOC/POC Regarding the 16^th ITC

About the 16^th ITC;

The 16th ITC will be held as a virtual conference on December 16-20th, 2020.

The global spread of the COVID-19 virus is continuing unabated, which naturally made it difficult to determine when to hold the ITC.  For this reason, a decision as to the best time for a rescheduled ITC was considerably delayed so as to judge the situation as well as possible.  It now seems evident that the pandemic will continue on into 2021 in many parts of the world.

Thus, after several discussions between the Chinese LOC and the AOTA regarding an alternative plan for the 16th ITC, LOC and AOTA reached an agreement to have the meeting online instead of in-person.

The 16^th ITC will be held as follows based on the LOC’s suggestion and following the approval of leaders of all four sister societies.

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Date: Wednesday 16 through Sunday 20 December, 2020

Registration: Registration is needed to get access to the session website.

Registration Fee: USD 150 (Member), USD 300 (Non-member), USD 100 (Trainee/Fellow /Nurse Practitioner)

CME credit will not be granted for this virtual conference.

Sessions: Recent Advances in Thyroidology, Plenary Lectures, Symposium Lectures, and Award Lectures.  All sessions will be prerecorded. The LOC is responsible for contacting the speakers and assisting them with recording.  There will be no meet the professor / debate and discussion and oral sessions / poster sessions.

Abstract submission is not necessary.

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We look forward to a successful online 16th ITC.

There will be constant updates on the 16th ITC on the Conference Website (https://itc2020.medmeeting.org) including important dates.

We express solidarity with all our society members throughout the world and hope that everyone is staying as safe and healthy.  

Weiping Teng (POC Chair of 16^th ITC)

Jiajun Zhao (LOC Chair of the 16^th ITC)

Zhongyan Shan (LOC Co-Chair of the 16^th ITC)

Jacqueline Jonklaas (Secretary of the ATA)           

Martha Zeiger (President of the ATA)

Leonidas Duntas (Secretary of the ETA)        

Laszlo Hegedüs  (President of the ETA)

Ana Luiza Maia (President of the LATS)

Claudia Pellizas (Secretary of the LATS)

Takashi Akamizu (President of AOTA)

Won Bae Kim (Secretary General of AOTA)

July 8 – August 19, 2020

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ATA 2020 Virtual Program Library

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Mar 25^th, 2020

The 2^nd Bulletin Regarding the 16^th ITC from AOTA, ETA, LATS, and ATA

The 16^th ITC has been postponed for now.

The global spread of the COVID-19 virus continues unabated. Our sister societies, their members, and our nations are all suffering catastrophic health impacts, severe financial consequences, travel restrictions, and schedule disruptions. Moreover, we all face an uncertain future with respect to recovery from this pandemic.

We all sincerely wish the 16^th ITC to be held at a time that there may be a healthier and safer environment, financial recovery, lifting of travel restrictions, and less competing pressures on the schedules of our members. When recovery has occurred globally a greater number of individuals may be able to attend, thus contributing to a more robust, vibrant, and successful ITC.

A decision about the best time for a rescheduled ITC  will be delayed for as long as is needed to fully ascertain the situation. It is our hope that with additional delay more information about the trajectory of the pandemic may become available. It may then be possible to make a decision based on a greater amount of reliable information. We do not wish to prematurely re-schedule the ITC for a time that AOTA, ETA, LATS, and ATA members will not be in a position to fully support the Congress. 

We apologize about this delayed decision and appreciate that it does add to the uncertainty experienced by our international thyroid community. We all miss the opportunity to be able to engage professionally and personally with our fellow members. We will notify all our sister society members when a decision about the timing of the 16^th ITC becomes possible.

We express solidarity with all our society members throughout the world and hope that everyone is staying as safe and as healthy as possible. We look forward to a happier time when this pandemic will no longer cast its shadow over our lives.

Won Bae Kim (Secretary of AOTA),  Takashi Akamizu, (President of AOTA)

Leonidas Duntas (Secretary of the ETA),  Laszlo Hegedüs  (President of the ETA)

Claudia Pellizas (Secretary of the LATS),  Ana Luiza Maia, (President of LATS)

Jacqueline Jonklaas (Secretary of the ATA), Martha Zeiger (President of the ATA)

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Bulletin regarding the 16^th ITC

Every 5 years there is an International Thyroid Congress (ITC) hosted by one of our sister societies [Asian and Oceanic Thyroid Association (AOTA), Latin American Thyroid Society (LATS), European Thyroid Association (ETA), and American Thyroid Association (ATA)]. These meetings represent the best of inter-society collegiality harnessed for promoting clinical care, research and education in thyroidology. Each of these international meetings also represents an enormous undertaking on the part of the program organizing committee. This year’s 16^th ITC in Xi’an, China has been planned over a period of 4 years.

The current devastating situation with the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in Hubei province has tragically caused an escalating number of deaths and illnesses. Our hearts go out to the Chinese people. We send all those affected our thoughts and prayers. The trajectory of the current outbreak is uncertain and our knowledge about the transmission and impact of the infection are ever evolving. The current level 3 travel advisory (no nonessential travel) has been extended beyond Hubei province to the whole of China, and the advisory may change. Depending on how the situation further evolves, these developments could seriously affect the upcoming ITC in China. Xi’an is about 400 miles northwest of Wuhan. The program organizing committee is actively staying abreast of the situation and will endeavor to keep members of our sister societies appraised of updated information.

At the current time we advise delaying making travel plans. Deadlines for abstract submissions and early bird registrations have been extended and announced on the conference website (www.itc2020.org). We apologize for this uncertainty and we commend the program organizing committee and the local organizing committee for their flexibility. We appreciate how difficult the situation is for the ITC organizers and that the situation may place all their creative and meticulous planning in jeopardy.

Please join us in extending our thoughts and sympathies to the Chinese people. We also thank the program organizing committee for their ongoing efforts at this difficult time. We would like to express our solidarity with the Chinese people and the ITC organizers. The ITC represents to us all the beating heart of the World Thyroid Community and a wonderful occasion to meet in a unique environment of shared aims, friendship and excellent science.

Please follow the updates on the websites of AOTA, LATS, ETA, and ATA.

Signed by

Jacqueline Jonklaas (ATA), Martha Zeiger (ATA), Weiping Teng (AOTA), Won Bae Kim (AOTA), Takashi Akamizu (AOTA), Zhongyan Shan (AOTA), Haixia Guan (AOTA), Leonidas Duntas (ETA), Ana Luiza Maia (LATS).    

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Dear AOTA members :
Due to an outbreak of a newly identified coronavirus (2019-nCov) in Wuhan, China since early this year, Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the 16th ITC decided to extend the abstract submission deadline and the early-bird registration deadline as follows.
LOC is going to re-evaluate the situation based on trends of the diseases in next few weeks.

Abstract Submission Deadline: May 1, 2020
Early-bird Registration Deadline: May 31, 2020

Please keep abreast of the status of the meeting by visiting meeting website (www.itc2020.org)

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The 13th Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA) Congress was recently held in International Convention Center, Sydney, Australia, in August 18-21, 2019.
The congress was held in conjunction with Endocrine Society of Australia (ESA) and Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB) annual meeting, chaired by Prof. Duncan Topliss from Australia.
The number of registered participants in Sydney AOTA 2019 was 91 from AOTA’s member countries, and total of 125 abstracts were submitted from Australia(18), Korea(57), Japan(11), China(9), Taiwan(7), Indonesia(6), India(3), Thailand (3), Singapore(3), Italy (3), Unites States (2), Bangladesh(1), Iran(1), and Pakistan (1).
Members of local organizing committee were Duncan Topliss (AOTA LOC Chair) (Alfred Health), Elizabeth Chua (AOTA LOC) (University of Sydney), Diana Learoyd (AOTA/ESA LOC) (University of Sydney) and Donald McLeod (AOTA LOC) (QIMR Berghofer). Members of program organizing committee were Roderick Clifton-Bligh (Chair) (University of Sydney), Sun Wook Kim (Sungkyunkwam University, Korea), Iwao Sugitani (Nippon Medical School, Japan) and Paul M Yen (Duke NUS Medical School, Singapore).
The congress started on August 18th with preconference activities including Thyroid Ultrasound Workshop. In opening session, Prof. Jae Hoon Chung from Korea delivered a plenary lecture with the title of ‘TERT promoter mutation and its clinical implication in thyroid cancer’. In the opening session, we had a special time for Awarding Professor Creswell Eastman, Australia, the inaugural “Distinguished Service Award of the AOTA” in acknowledgement of his distinguished contributions to clinical and laboratory thyroidology, his work to establish and support AOTA, his regional and international work in the epidemiology and eradication of iodine deficiency disease (IDD), and his mentoring of colleagues to develop and contribute to clinical thyroidology in our region. His lifetime contributions were narrated by Dr. Teofilo San Luis Jr. and plaque and prize money were awarded to Prof. Eastman by President of AOTA, Professor Takashi Akamizu.
Scientific program was consisted of 2 plenary lectures, 2 invited lectures, 4 symposium sessions (12 topics), 3 meet-the-professor sessions, 6 oral sessions (48 papers) and poster sessions (77 papers). Among them, 11 young investigators were awarded travel grant for distinguished abstract (Pantea Nazeri from Iran, Sayaka Yamada, Takashi Okamura from Japan, Chih Chen Wang, Yen-Hsiang Chang from Taiwan, Eyun Song, Choonyoung Kim, Sae Rom Chung, Jonghwa Ahn, Kwangsoon Kim, Hana Kim from Korea) and the award budget were provided by AOTA.
On Aug, 21st, a second plenary lecture was delivered by Prof. Yuji Nagayama from Japan with a title of ‘Animal models of thyroid diseases’. AOTA Nagataki-Fujifilm prize of year 2017 awardee was Prof. Weiping Teng from China, and he delivered a prize lecture titled ‘Increasing TSH Levels in China’. Nagataki-Fujifilm prize of year 2019 was awarded to Prof. Won Bae Kim from Korea, and he gave us a prize lecture titled ‘Unmet Clinical Needs in Thyroid Cancer’.
The 13th AOTA congress was closed with promise that we would meet again in the 16th International Thyroid Congress, September 8-13, 2020 in Xi’an, China ( www.itc2020.org ) at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center.

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Prof. Jen-Der Lin, the Past President of The Endocrine Society of ROC and a longtime member of the AOTA, died Sep, 4th, 2019, at age 66.
As members of the Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA), we express our sincere condolences to the family of Professor Jen-Der Lin who would have been bewildered by a loss of a beloved scholar.
He was one of outstanding scholars who performed excellent studies on thyroid cancer during his lifetime and served AOTA as a council member representing Taiwan from 2010 to 2015.
His warm heart and scientific brilliance have deeply touched his patients and his colleagues and friends in our region.
May he rest in peace while his spirit for patients’ care and teaching lives on.

Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association

A note from Ashok Bhaseen, President of Thyroid Federation International

“There are still many people living with some kind of thyroid disorder without diagnosis. The International Thyroid Awareness Week is now in its 11th year, and I promise, we at Thyroid Federation International and its member countries won’t rest until testing and diagnosis rates improve globally. This year we’re helping people to recognize the many faces of thyroid disorders so they can visit a healthcare professional and get tested as soon as possible.“

Look for patient programs on education and awareness in your country or visit the Thyroid Federation website in your country.

How to get involved in this year’s campaign

If you’re on social media, keep up with the campaign via our channels on Twitter and Facebook, and play your part in the global movement by using the hashtag #ITAW19. This will help us raise awareness of thyroid disorders, which affect more than 200 million people worldwide as per ATA (American Thyroid Association).

Visit us on www.thyroidweek.org and www.thyroid-fed.org

Why are we doing this?

ITAW, now in its 11^th year, was created to highlight the detrimental impact that thyroid disorders have on people’s quality of life when left undiagnosed. Around 1.6 billion people worldwide are thought to be at risk, with hundreds of millions living with a thyroid condition right now.[i] Up to 60% of those living with a thyroid disorder are undiagnosed, and people may be needlessly struggling through their everyday lives without knowing the root cause of their symptoms.[ii]

However, once diagnosed, thyroid disorders are treatable, and the ITAW campaign is pushing hard to improve testing and diagnoses globally.

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i Khan A, Khan MM, Akhtar S. Thyroid disorders, etiology and prevalence. J Med Sci 2002; 2: 89–94. Available at: http://www.scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jms.2002.89.94&org=11 Last accessed February 2019.

ii American Thyroid Association. General Information/Press Room. Available at: https://www.thyroid.org/media-main/press-room/  Last accessed February 2019.